But Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul replied, “When I saw that the army had started to abandon me ¹  and that you didn’t come at the appointed time and that the Philistines had assembled at Micmash,

So he took David ¹  down, and they found them spread out over the land. They were eating and drinking and enjoying themselves because of all the loot ²  they had taken from the land of the Philistines and from the land of Judah.

I will bring terror on you from every side,” says the Lord God who rules over all. ¹  “You will be scattered in every direction. ²  No one will gather the fugitives back together.

Then the Jewish leaders ¹  said to one another, “Where is he ²  going to go that we cannot find him? ³  He is not going to go to the Jewish people dispersed ⁴  among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, is he? ⁵ 

The Israelites fled from before the Judahite army, ¹  and God handed them over to the men of Judah. ² 

Which of all these ¹  does not know that the hand of the Lord ²  has done ³  this,

Not so with the wicked! Instead ¹  they are like wind-driven chaff. ² 

These men ¹  are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm, for whom the utter depths of darkness ²  have been reserved.

For the music director; according to the shushan-eduth style; ²  a prayer ³  of David written to instruct others. ⁴  It was written when he fought against Aram Naharaim and Aram-Zobah. That was when Joab turned back and struck down ⁵  12,000 Edomites ⁶  in the Valley of Salt. ⁷  O God, you have rejected us. ⁸  You suddenly turned on us in your anger. ⁹  Please restore us!

Those who have been killed by the Lord at that time will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. ¹  Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.

“You are righteous, ¹  O Lord, but we are humiliated this day ²  – the people ³  of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far away in all the countries in which you have scattered them, because they have behaved unfaithfully toward you.

Indeed, I am about to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not take heed to the sheep headed to slaughter, will not seek the scattered, and will not heal the injured. ¹  Moreover, he will not nourish the one that is healthy but instead will eat the meat of the fat sheep ²  and tear off their hooves.

His descendants ¹  settled from Havilah to Shur, which runs next ²  to Egypt all the way ³  to Asshur. ⁴  They settled ⁵  away from all their relatives. ⁶ 

In this initial skirmish Jonathan and his armor bearer struck down about twenty men in an area that measured half an acre.

I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground; I crush them and stomp on them like clay ¹  in the streets.

Jezebel’s corpse will be like manure on the surface of the ground in the plot of land at Jezreel. People will not be able to even recognize her.’” ¹ 

He smashed the sacred pillars to bits, cut down the Asherah pole, and filled those shrines ¹  with human bones.

Now the city was spread out ¹  and large, and there were not a lot of people in it. ²  At that time houses had not been rebuilt.

He drove the nations out from before them; he assigned them their tribal allotments ¹  and allowed the tribes of Israel to settle down. ² 

He generously gives ¹  to the needy; his integrity endures. ²  He will be vindicated and honored. ³